Job Description
Grade UE07: £41,064 to £48,822 per annum
College of Science and Engineering / School of Geosciences
Full-time: 35 hours per week
Fixed-term: for 2.5 years
The Opportunity
We seek a 2.5-year postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) to work within the Greenland ice-ocean focus group of the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project 7 (ISMIP7), funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation.
The overall aim of ISMIP7 is to establish consensus estimates of the sea level rise contribution from ice sheet change over the coming decades and centuries. The role of the Greenland ice-ocean focus group is to develop an experimental protocol that best represents the complex processes occurring at the ice sheet's marine margins, to deliver the resulting ocean boundary conditions in a format that is implementable by ice sheet models, and to work to understand the simulation results to better quantify the influence of the ocean on Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss.
The PDRA will take a leading role in delivering these aims, in particular creating the ocean boundary conditions needed to run past and future simulations of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and analysing how ocean forcing of the Greenland Ice Sheet has evolved and may evolve over the coming decades and centuries. This will largely involve working with climate model output but may also include ice sheet and ocean observations depending on the precise focus.
The PDRA will work primarily at the University of Edinburgh with Donald Slater, to whom informal enquiries may be directed, but also interfacing closely with other members of the focus group based elsewhere. The anticipated start date is 1 September 2026, but some flexibility can be offered.
This post is full time; however, we are open to considering flexible working patterns and requests for hybrid working (on a non-contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on-campus working.
View The Full Job Description
The University of Edinburgh is a world-class organisation. We look for the best in the field across all disciplines and provide a working environment where academics can develop their careers and passion for their chosen subject area. We are part of a local community and a contributor to global thinking, progress and research. In Edinburgh, you are in one of the world's most attractive cities with active arts and social sectors, while working in a University that has made significant contributions to society, medicine, physics and teaching for over four centuries. Our people have helped create the modern world and are working on more ground-breaking technologies and practices.
How To Apply
Please include the following documents in your application:
CV (max 3 pages).
Cover letter, describing your motivation and summarising your skills/experience relevant to the role.
As a valued member of our team, you can expect:
A competitive salary.
An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.
To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community.
Comprehensive Staff Benefits, including generous annual leave entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, a wide range of staff discounts, family-friendly initiatives, and flexible work options. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page and use our reward calculator to discover the value of your pay and benefits.
Championing equality, diversity, and inclusion
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter, and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and particularly encourage applications from groups historically underrepresented in research and academia. The project team are committed to creating an inclusive, respectful, and supportive environment where all members can thrive and can have a healthy work-life balance.
Prior to any employment commencing with the University, you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages .
The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant.
Key dates to note
The closing date for applications is 4 th March 2026.
Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm UK time. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.
We aim to hold interviews in mid-March.
About Us
As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow's greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
About The Team
The School of GeoSciences explores the factors and forces that shape our world. The School aims to understand the world through fundamental curiosity-driven research and to support prescient decision-making at individual to global scales. We undertake world-leading research; offer new ways of understanding natural and social drivers of change; provide inter-and trans-disciplinary solutions; and work in partnership to improve livelihoods and explore ways to manage the environment that are both sustainable and socially equitable.
With over 500 academics, researchers and research students, we are the largest and most successful interdisciplinary grouping of geoscientists and geographers in the UK. Research activity is coordinated within three main Research Institutes – Global Change, Earth and Planetary Science, and Geography and the Lived Environment – and within smaller research groupings that reach across and beyond the School.
A distinctive feature of the School is the combination of academic strength, intellectual breadth and societal relevance. Our interdisciplinary research and teaching builds on established core disciplines (ecology, environmental sciences, geography, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography) to provide a variety of approaches to understanding the world (including, for example, system-scale modelling, process studies and the development of urban and social theory). The School's research covers fundamental 'blue-skies' questions, as well as having application to key societal challenges including inequality and vulnerability; urban precarity; nature and cultural meaning; development and sustainability; climate and environmental change; energy, food and water security; health and wellbeing; natural resources; and natural hazards.
The School of GeoSciences aims to recognise and value diversity in our staff and students, and to support flexible and family-friendly working.
More details about the School is available from